How To Save A Life rewrite
by woodnotes
Summary: When Buffy dies in The Gift, a third slayer, Rika, is called. What happens when she meets our favourite Winchester boys? Rewrite of original story. PG-13, mild violence, mild sexual content later on. AU. Sam/OC. Now with sequel: 'Wish Me Monsters'.
1. Prologue: How To Save A Life

**Rating:** PG-13 (mild violence, mild sexual content later on)**  
****Genre:**** Supernatural/Romance/Drama****  
****Summary:** When Buffy dies in The Gift, a third slayer, Rika, is called. What happens when she meets our favourite Winchester boys? AU.**  
****Characters:** Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Rika Johansson (OC), Hugh Tennant (OC)**  
****Pairing:** Sam/OC**  
YouTube trailer: **Go to Youtube and add /watch?v=MM9hOoRAYOo at the end to watch the trailer I made for this fic.**  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural nor the songs used in this fic. However, the character Rika is mine, except for the Slayer part of her.

Don't get thrown off by the clichéd prologue. It gets better. At least I hope so.

* * *

**Prologue – How To Save A Life**

* * *

_Step one you say we need to talk  
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk  
He smiles politely back at you  
You stare politely right on through_

_Some sort of window to your right__  
As he goes left and you stay right  
Between the lines of fear and blame  
You begin to wonder why you came_

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend__  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
__And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life_

_Let him know that you know best  
Cause after all you do know best  
Try to slip past his defense  
Without granting innocence_

_Lay down a list of what is wrong  
The things you've told him all along  
And pray to God he hears you  
And pray to God he hears you_  
The Fray - How To Save A Life

* * *

Buffy was the girl who had managed to live the longest after being called to her mission, her destiny – becoming the Vampire Slayer. Slayers did not tend to survive very long.

However, she had not lead a perfect life. She died twice. The first time she drowned and was gone for two minutes, and was then revived with CPR. However, her clinical death was enough for the next slayer, Kendra, to be called.

And then there were two.

When Kendra died, killed by the mentally disturbed vampire Drusilla, another slayer, Faith, was called. When Buffy was 20 years old, she gave her life to save her little sister, Dawn or The Key, who she had been assigned to protect. She was brought back a while later, thanks to a spell done by Willow, her powerful wicca friend. What none of them knew, however, was that Buffy's death lead to another slayer being called.

And then there were three.

Rika was only 16 at the time. She had lead a sheltered and safe life in a small village on the Finnish countryside, with both of her birth parents and a younger brother. She was a straight-A student and had a lot of friends, who she adored, and they adored her back. She was happy.

But then, everything changed. In just a couple of minutes everthing she had known, that she _thought_ she had known, changed. She had never been strong or fast, but suddenly she could run faster than all of her friends. She started having nightmares, about other girls.

Rika was surprised when the middle-aged and very British man, Hugh Tennant, came to visit her. He told her what she had become, and that he was her Watcher. Not long after Hugh's appearance, she saw her first vampire on the cemetery in her village, the same cemetery who she always had thought was beautiful and safe. It hadn't frightened her before, but even that changed. The next two years were spent training and fighting. She tried to escape her destiny, refusing to fight, she didn't want to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was, after all, just a girl.

There was no escape though, for she was the Slayer. One of them, at least.

So, she tried her best and finished high school in the small town near her home. Once high school was over, she decided to move to Boston, to study journalism at Boston University. She had wanted to be a journalist since she was 16, and there was no reason to give up all of her plans just because she had become the Slayer. At the university she lead a double-life, slayer by night, journalism student by day.

* * *

**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THE STORY.**

This is a rewrite for my very first fanfic, How To Save A Life. The original fic was filled with spelling errors and certain plot holes, and this is my attempt to fix this and make the story slightly more readable.

Yes, I happened to name the Slayer after my nickname, Rika. It's my story, so, suck it up. In a way she _is_ a much prettier and a lot more awesome version of myself, and in other ways we are nothing alike. Maybe I decided to name her after me and give her a few of my traits because of egoism, or maybe it was because I love Sam so much I wanted to save him from the events in seasons 3, 4 and 5, especially the latter ones. I don't know. It's not really relevant for the story.

According to the Buffy mythology, a third slayer being called would require Faith dying. But this story is AU, so guess what? Anything's possible in my world.

The rules how to kill vampires are applied from BtVS, not SPN. Rika doesn't know Buffy and Faith – she knows there are two other slayers but she's never met them. The part where the council was blown up and Willow did the spell to call all potentials never happened according to this fic, they won against the first only thanks to Spike and the amulet. There are only three slayers in the world according to this fic.

Rika is also as old as Sam is in SPN, so the timeline might not quite fit with both shows. The fic takes place about 5 years after BtVS season 7, somewhere mid-season 2 of SPN. I imagine Rika looking a bit like Kristen Bell, only more Scandinavian. Her looks are described more accurately in the fic itself. With that said...

I apologize for any grammar mistakes or poor writing as English is my third language. I'm also not that familiar with how college works in the US or Boston for that matter, so there might be some errors there. Some places are real, some made up. I do hope you enjoy the story. I'd love to get some reviews so I know what to improve.


	2. Chapter 1: Love, Save the Empty

**Chapter 1 - Love, Save The Empty**

* * *

_Little girls don't know how to be sweet girls.  
Mama didn't teach me.  
Little boys don't know how to treat little girls.  
Daddy didn't show me._

_Face down, on top of your bed.  
Oh why did I give it up to you?  
Is this how I shoot myself up high,  
Just high enough to get through?_

_Again, the false affection.  
Again, we break down inside.  
Love save the empty.  
Love save the empty, and save me._

_Sad boy, you stare up at the sky  
When no one's looking back at you.  
You wear your every last disguise;  
You're flying, then you fall through._

_Stars feel like knives,  
They tell us why we're fighting.  
Storm, wait outside.  
Oh, love, hold us together._

_Love, save the empty.  
Love, save the empty.  
Love, save the empty.  
Love, save the empty, and save me.  
And save me._  
Erin McCarley - Love, Save The Empty

* * *

Rika was slowly walking down Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, on her way to Evergreen Cemetery. The city was dark, as it was nearing midnight. There was no nightlife in this part of town. Not human anyways. She looked at the light mist surrounding one of the lamp-posts and sighed. Hopefully this wasn't going to be a long night. For five years she had been living in Boston, and now she was almost done with her journalism studies, at the age of 23, almost 24. She was in the middle of her final semester this chilly night in mid-March.

She did miss her family, actually more than she wanted to admit to herself. She couldn't go back home full-time though, she would be putting them in danger. At least she saw them at Christmas and other shorter holidays from school. She had been speaking to her mother about coming home for summer, after finishing her studies, but Rika was hesitant. She knew sticking around her family for too long would most likely put them in danger, and she didn't want them to get hurt. Not again.

This was also the reason why she didn't have a steady boyfriend. She dated of course, casual relationships that usually lasted a couple of weeks, sometimes even a couple of months. It wasn't as if she wasn't popular among the male students at the college. She almost always said yes when someone asked her out, since she didn't have the heart to tell them off unless they were jerks. The popularity might have been because she was the lead singer in a band at the school, the other guys in the band being some of her best friends. They were fun to hang out with, and she had always been more of a tomboy anyways.

The guys weren't more than that though, they didn't know who she really was. She was also always giving off a positive vibe, some people would have said she had the prettiest smile on campus. She laughed a lot, and was compassionate towards others. She was dependable. "_Good old dependable Rika_", she thought and laughed sarcastically to herself. It was her desperate attempt at having a somewhat normal life. On the inside, though, she felt empty. Something was missing in her life. But maybe that was just a necessary sacrifice that came with the job.

She finally reached the cemetery and sighed again. She took a quick glance at the stars in the sky, and immediately recognized the Big Dipper. When she was younger she loved looking up at the stars, thinking about how big the universe was and trying to see some shooting stars. Her neck had been hurting after all her winter night walks when she walked with her head turned up towards the sky. It had been a while since the last time though. Rika shook her head and snickered, once again, sarcastically. She didn't seem to have the time to enjoy life all that much lately.

She had an exam the next morning, but she didn't care to study. She didn't need to, seeing as she already knew everything there was to know for the test. She might as well get some slaying done, she wouldn't have been able to get sleep anyways. There had been a whole lot of sleepless nights lately.

There had been some mysterious killings on campus. The police had no leads. She had found the first body herself. She'd even been forced to talk to the school counsellor afterwards in case she would have been traumatized, even though she insisted that she didn't need to. However, she didn't get a chance to take a closer look at the body. She'd talked to her watcher about it, and they had broken in to the morgue, suspecting vampires, but there were no puncture wounds. There was no sign of trauma on the bodies.  
There were five victims so far, three girls and two boys. The last victim, Janine, had been a friend of hers as she also had studied journalism. Or actually more of an aquaintance, but Rika had liked Janine and she was sad because she was dead, and she wouldn't have minded getting to know Janine better. Rika was worried about the next day, she'd have to get through Janine's memorial service. She had to find the thing responsible and kill it as soon as possible, before there were any more victims.

Rika woke up from her deep thoughts as she heard a branch snapping. Suddenly, a shadow clad frame appeared in front of her. She immediately recognized the figure as a vampire when it stepped closer to her, finding it's way into the moonlight. She took a tighter grip around the stake in her hand.

"Hey there, sweetheart", the vampire said and grinned, showing its fangs. "Don't you know young ladies like yourself shouldn't take walks alone in the middle of the night? You never know who... or what you might bump into."

He stepped even closer.

"What do you mean?", she asked, pulling the stupid blonde act she loved using while slaying. "Hey, dude, what's wrong with your face? Are you on PCP or something?"

The vampire took another step towards her, his grin becoming wider. _Stupid vampire._

"Ew!", Rika exclaimed and used her hand as a fan in front of her nose. "Your breath stinks! You should definitely brush your teeth. I'd recommend a minty toothpaste."

"Silly girl", the vampire stated, still grinning. "You'll be dead in about a minute. It won't hurt... a lot. I promise."

Rika tilted her head a bit. "Tell me, have you ever heard the expression "Vampire Slayer"? You picked the wrong girl tonight, mister."

The vampire's eyes widened, and he finally noticed the pointy wooden stake in her hand. "Slayer!", he gasped.

Rika raised her hand as she moved into battle position. She felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins. "_I'm going to win_", she thought, just before delivering the first punch.

* * *

Earlier that day Sam Winchester was surfing the Internet on his laptop in another shithole town somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly his older brother Dean entered the 1967 Chevy Impala he drove and loved above anything else. Dean was holding two cups of coffee and handed one of them to Sam before sitting down in the driver's seat. The familiar scent of leather from his brother's jacket travelled into Sam's nose.

"So dude, you find a new case for us yet?", Dean asked.

Sam turned his head towards his brother.

"Yeah, I think so", he said. "You might as well start driving towards Boston".

"What's up in Boston?", Dean asked. "Boston is such a boring city. Why can't we go to L.A. instead and pick up some hot actresses? Man, that Angelina Jolie is gorgeous."

Sam looked at Dean and rolled his eyes. He didn't share his brother's love for 'hot chicks', he wanted something more out of his relationships. He was not to be taken wrong though, he did appreciate looking at a beautiful woman, he was after all, also a man. But still, it didn't mean he wanted to jump the bones of every pretty girl that came his way.

He wanted something like he had had with Jessica before her being killed by the yellow-eyed demon. That's why he hated that Dean was always trying to get him laid. He'd know when he met the right girl. He wasn't sure what to do when he met someone he liked though, since the girls in his life tended to get hurt, or even worse – killed. Sarah Blake had been a nice girl, and he'd even considered her for a while, but... He wanted a normal life, more than anything, but it was impossible with his lifestyle. He would have been in law school by now if it hadn't been for Jessica dying. He decided to ignore Dean's comment and started explaining.

"There have been some killings on campus at Boston University lately. Five students are dead, three girls and two guys. The papers don't mention any cause of death, but according to them the police don't have many leads to follow. I think the killings may be supernatural, but I can't be sure before I've examined the bodies. The last victim, Janine, was killed two days ago, and her memorial service is tomorrow."

Dean sighed and turned the ignition.

"I guess we're going to Boston then", he said right before stepping on the gas. "Bitch."

"Jerk", Sam responded with a crooked smile.

Once again, the Winchester brothers were on their way to save the day.

**---**

Dean took a deep breath when he parked the car outside of a shoddy motel in Boston. It had been a long drive. But then again, what else was new? This was probably not going to be any different than their other cases. He was sure of it.

"Wait here" he said and Sam just nodded.

Dean got out of the car and walked up towards the motel, taking in the surroundings while he walked. "_Another _dump", he thought. Dean stepped through the doors and walked towards the info desk. The motel manager, apparently, soon stepped out of the back room. Dean tried his best not to make a face in disgust. The motel manager was middle-aged, with a huge beer belly, almost bald. He wore a t-shirt that once had been white. Now it was more of this grey and brown mix with big ketchup and food stains all over it, filled with holes.

"What the hell do you want?", he asked Dean with clear suspicion in his voice.

"Good evening, sunshine! I'd like a room, two queens", Dean said and fired off his best smile. _"Man, does this dude want customers or not? No wonder this motel is so damn shoddy."_

The manager sighed and pulled a key from the desk. "Here you go", he said. "It'll be 60 bucks a night."

"_What a ripoff",_ Dean thought.

Dean signed the receipt, as he had paid for seven nights using one of his fake credit cards. _D. Hasselhoff_. He chuckled and handed the receipt to the manager who nodded and put it away in a file without giving it a further look. Dean went back outside to get Sam.

"We should get some sleep", Sam said as he dropped his duffel bag on the motel room floor. "There's not much we can do tonight. Tomorrow we'll go to the morgue and look at the bodies, and then talk to some of the students. See if anyone on campus knows anything. Maybe pay a visit to the service and talk to some of her friends."

Dean agreed, and soon both brothers were laying in their own beds. Dean closed his eyes, and tried to get some sleep. After an hour he still hadn't fallen asleep. He listened to Sam's deep, rythmic breathing in the bed next to him. He changed positions, sighed, and found his old Walkman. This was going to be a long night. However, he soon managed to catch sleep to the soothing, or so he thought, tunes of Metallica.


	3. Chapter 2: Oxygen

**Chapter 2 – Oxygen**

* * *

_I came apart inside a world  
Made of angry people  
I found a boy who had a dream  
Making everyone smile  
He was sunshine  
I fell over  
My feet like bricks under water  
And how am I supposed to tell you how I feel?  
I need oxygen_

_Oh baby, if I was your lady  
I will make you happy  
I'm never gonna leave, never gonna leave  
Oh baby, I would be your lady  
I am going crazy... for you_

_And so I found a state of mind  
Where I could be speechless  
I had to try it for a while  
To figure out this feeling  
This felt so right  
Pull me upside  
Down to a place where you've been waiting  
And how am I supposed to tell you how I feel?  
I need oxygen_  
Colbie Caillat - Oxygen

* * *

Sam walked out of the motel. It was 6AM, early Tuesday morning. The sun was just starting to rise over the Boston buildings and Charles River. They had intentionally picked a motel near campus. Sam was aware it was really early, and especially Dean hated getting up early in the mornings. If Dean could choose, he'd probably sleep 'til twelve. However, they had better get to the morgue early, before people started wandering in and out of there. Dean was a wanted fugitive, and now Sam too, and they couldn't risk getting caught. Sam sighed as he waited for Dean.

"Dean, are you coming today or tomorrow?", he shouted impatiently.

"Yeah bitch, I'm coming", Dean gruffed."Just take it easy, I didn't get much sleep."

Sam laughed at Dean's appearance, his hair was really tousled and he looked tired and untidy in spite of the black suit he was wearing. Dean gave him the death stare before the boys got into the Impala.

A couple of minutes later they pulled up outside the city morgue. Sam and Dean straightened out their suits and walked into the office with their usual confidence. They could never show too much of that when they were working a job.

"FBI", Dean said to the secretary and both flashed their fake badges to the elderly woman. "We're here to look at the campus bodies."

"The police have already looked at them", the woman argued.

"Listen miss...", Dean said with his best smile and glanced at the I.D. tag she was wearing. "Bloomfield. The case has been transferred to us now, and we'd like to conduct our own investigation."

The woman blushed, apparently because of him calling her "miss". Sam had to admit, Dean knew how to charm women of any age.

"Mrs actually", she responded, now with a softer appearance. "Okay, very well, follow me."

She lead them into the morgue and pulled out the five bodies. "I guess you want to be alone", she said.

Sam smiled and thanked her and Dean just nodded. Once she left the room, Sam started examining the bodies.

"Dude, there's no apparent cause of death, not any that I can see anyways", he told Dean. "I suspected it could've been vampires but there are no puncture wounds and all the blood is still there."

He looked at one of the girls. She had been pretty when she was alive, long brown hair and big, bright blue eyes. Now she was incredibly pale, her former beauty faded. "_Poor girl_", Sam thought. This never got any easier, no matter how many times they did it.

"There are no other traumas on the bodies either", Sam said and shook his head. "I wish there was something, but there isn't. Looks like they just dropped down dead".

"Maybe we're dealing with a spirit of some kind", Dean responded and looked like he was thinking really hard.

"Maybe", Sam responded.

He covered up the bodies and put them back in their places. "We need something more to go on before starting to research", he said. "Let's get some breakfast, and then we could maybe go to campus and talk to some of the students. Maybe that'll give us some ideas."

"Breakfast sounds awesome", Dean responded. "Come on geek boy, I'm starving."

Sam couldn't help but to laugh, and followed his brother outside to the car. They quickly went back to the motel to change out of their suits into something more casual, and from there they went to a little diner near campus.

* * *

Rika was sitting at the diner, having some breakfast and working on her final paper on her MacBook. She minored in psychology, so she had decided to write about how media affects children and their behaviour. Her lectures had been cancelled due to the memorial service that was about to take place in an hour, so she had decided to get some work done. Last night had been late, as she had been patrolling the city. However, she had gotten up early as she was a morning person. She was always surprised that she wasn't tired even with only three hours of sleep, but that was just part of the Slayer package. Or so she figured. Slayers were sort of creatures of the night, if you thought about it.

She took a glance at her watch and realized that she had to get going if she was going to make it back to her apartment and get changed before Janine's service. She put her MacBook away into her black messenger bag which she then threw over her shoulder and picked up her trustworthy Canon EOS 400D from the table and hung it around her neck. She quickly gathered her books and papers from the table, and put them underneath her arm. Finally she left a tip for the waitress and walked towards the exit when she suddenly bumped into someone and her books dropped on down on the floor.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry", she heard a male voice say. "You okay?"

Rika avoided looking up, as she knew someone with that kind of voice would most likely be very good-looking. She didn't want to embarrass herself by blushing, so she knelt and started gathering her books and papers that were now strewn across the diner floor. She saw that the person she had bumped into also knelt down to start helping her with her stuff.

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's okay", she replied as she gathered the last of her papers. "I didn't watch where I was going." She stood up, and the other person did too.

"You sure?", the guy asked her again. She looked up and stared into a pair of kind, green eyes

She had been right. He was absolutely dreamy as he was standing there, smiling at her. He was quite tall, at least 6'4" and she was on eye-level with his shoulders. Damn, she hated being so short at times. She literally had to look up at him, just to see his face. He had brown hair that was a bit longer and he pulled off that "I don't brush my hair" look really well. His nose gave his face a certain boyish charm, and it was very cute. He was most definitely her type, she had always had a thing for the tall, dark and handsome guy. There was another guy standing on his side, and it looked like they had entered the diner together. The other one was also very good-looking, though a bit shorter, maybe around 6' or 6'1". He looked a bit older than the guy she had bumped into though, and a bit more rugged in a brown leather jacket. She fired Mr Tall-Dark-and-Handsome her prettiest smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure", she said as he handed her the books he had picked off the floor. She put them back under her arm. "Thanks."

"Good", he said and smiled once more. "_Oh, God, that smile_", Rika thought.

"I'm kind of in a hurry, I gotta go", she excused herself and opened the door. She stepped out in the morning sunlight. "_Wonder who that was. God, I need some oxygen."_ Maybe it was going to be a beautiful day after all. Then she realized she didn't even ask for the guys name. Secretly, she hoped she'd get to see him again.

* * *

When Sam entered the diner he didn't get very far as he bumped into someone trying to leave. Everything happened so fast, and the only thing he saw as a couple of books and some papers that fell to the floor, dropped by the person he had bumped into. He looked up and saw a girl, as she knelt and started to pick up her books.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry", he said. "You okay?"

She had long, wavy, honey blonde hair. He admired her lean figure. She wore a tight, forest green sweater that reached half her thighs, a pair of black, skinny jeans and some black flats. She also had a brown leather jacket. He couldn't see her face as her hair was in the way, the long sideswept bang falling over her face, keeping it hidden. She had a black messenger bag thrown over her shoulder, and a camera was hanging around her neck. He could tell she was pretty. He knelt too, and started helping her with her books. He caught the title on one of them: 'Handbook of Journalism Studies'. Ah, she studied journalism. He glanced at another of the books. Goethe's 'Faust'. That was some pretty deep reading. Her being a journalism student explained the camera and the amount of papers she was carrying. She must be pretty smart.

She was silent at first, but then she spoke. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's okay. I didn't watch where I was going."

She picked up the last papers, and then she stood up. Sam did the same. "You sure?", he asked once more, wanting to be sure she hadn't gotten any injuries.

She finally looked up, and he looked into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were big and almond-shaped, framed by long, black eyelashes. And the colour. They were hazel towards green, but with tints of blueish grey and brown. He also noticed her light skin, and the tiny freckles on the bend of her nose and under her eyes. They weren't that distinct, and you couldn't see them if she wasn't standing really close. It just made them cuter. Her nose was slightly round at the tip, and she had full, peachy lips. And then she smiled, a warm, compassionate smile and he almost melt right there.

"Yeah, I'm sure", she said as he handed her the books he had picked off the floor. She put them back under her arm. "Thanks."

"Good", he said and smiled, as he couldn't come up with anything better to say.

"I'm kind of in a hurry, I gotta go", she said, and suddenly she was out the door, before he even realized she was gone. As she walked past him, her scent travelled into his nose. She smelled lovely, of wild flowers and something fresh, something along the lines of early morning dew after a summer rain.

Sam looked after the girl as she left the diner. He couldn't help looking at her behind, perfectly shaped, and how her hips were swinging as she walked. She walked with such grace that she almost looked like she was dancing. She was quite short, only around 5'5", but it made her even cuter. No, she wasn't cute, he corrected himself. Cute was an understatement. He shook his head. He wasn't usually this condescending towards girls, he didn't like to 'check them out' in the same way his brother did.

Then he realized he hadn't even gotten her name. "_Wonder if I'll ever see her again_", he thought. Then he became aware of his brother again, who had been standing next to him all the time. Sam turned towards his brother, and caught Dean staring at her behind too, and punched him on the shoulder.

"Ow, dude! What the hell!", Dean yelled and rubbed his shoulder.

"Stop staring at women and concentrate", Sam responded.

"Oh, don't pretend there Sammy boy!", Dean said. "You checked her out too! And I don't blame you, she was smokin'!"

Sam ignored Dean, and changed the subject. He didn't want to argue about women with Dean again. They had had the same argument a million times by now. But he couldn't get this particular girl out his his head. He felt oddly drawn to her for some reason.

"Let's grab something to eat", he suggested in an attempt to think of something else. "It's going to be a long day."

* * *

Rika opened the door to her apartment and threw the keys on the table in the hall. She sighed and removed her jacket and shoes. She looked into the mirror in the hall, and let out another sigh. She looked like a wreck.

She walked over to the bathroom and slowly got undressed. She needed to shower. She turned the shower on, and it took a moment before the hot water kicked in. When it did, she stepped into the shower, and soon she felt her tense muscles loosening up underneath the hot water, moaning her approval of the situation.

She was done in about five minutes. She wasn't like other girls who needed an hour in the shower. She blowdried her hair, and put on some fresh make-up. Then she slid into the black, strapless dress she was going to wear to the service and slipped into a pair of black stilettos. Even though she hated using heels they made her taller and that was a big plus. She pulled out a gray cardigan from her wardrobe, put on her jacket, grabbed her purse and went out the door. _"Time to say goodbye to Janine",_ she thought before locking up.


	4. Chapter 3: Lost

**A/N: **This chapter is my attempt at giving more depth to Rika's relationship with her watcher, Hugh, and also bring in an actual character from BtVS. The stuff Hugh is saying while Rika is meditating was swiped from BtVS season 5, episode 2 'Real Me'. Not a very long chapter, but it serves its purpose.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Lost**

* * *

_By the shadows of the night I go  
I moved away from the crowded room  
That sea of shallow faces masked in warm regret  
They don't know how to feel, they don't know what is lost_

_Lost in the darkness of a land  
Where all the hope that's offered is  
Memories of being taken by the hand  
And we are led into the sun  
But I don't have a hold on what is real  
Though we can only try  
What is there to give or to believe_

_I want it all to go away I want to be alone  
Sympathy's wasted on my hollow shell  
I feel there's nothing left to fight for  
No reason for a cause  
And I can't hear your voice and I can't feel you near_

_I wanted a change knowing all I could do was try  
I was looking for someone..._  
Sarah McLachlan - Lost

-------------------------------------------------  
**  
**Some student, whose name Rika didn't know, was talking about Janine and how wonderful she had been. She was sitting in the back row in the chapel, and was trying to get through the memorial service. Rika hated memorial services, and the people there. They were so pretentious and fake, pretending to care. Most of the people in the chapel at the moment hadn't even known Janine. They hadn't known her name, and they had most certainly not noticed her. Janine wasn't the type of person to make a fuss about herself, and that was why Rika had liked her. She was a nice girl, but she hadn't been loud. Rika could easily have pictured her being friends with Janine. She could feel a tear running down her cheek, and quickly wiped it away. She always cried at these things. For some reason death always made her sad, no matter whom it concerned. And now that it was a person who she'd actually been aquainted with it was even worse.

When someone died, or got killed, suddenly everyone remembered something about the person who was now gone. What a great person they had been. Fantasies mostly, exaggerations, nothing real. Suddenly everyone cared. Of course the death of the students had been tragic, and Rika was sad, wanted to pay her respects. But she hated fakes and liars.

No, she couldn't sit there anymore, looking at all the shallow faces wearing masks of compassion. She needed to get out, get some fresh air. She was starting to feel slightly claustrophobic, like she couldn't breathe. Even though she knew Janine's death hadn't been her fault, she couldn't help but to feel responsible. If she only had found the thing killing these people earlier maybe this wouldn't have happened. She knew she wasn't to blame, but a feeling of guilt came creeping in.

Without a sound she got up from her seat and walked towards the exit, she had to meet up with her Watcher anyways. Soon, she was out the door without anyone even noticing that she was gone. Or so she thought.

* * *

Sam and Dean were standing in the back corner of the chapel, listening to the memorial service for the latest victim. Sam looked around the room. It was packed with people. "_She must have been popular_", he thought. His eyes swept across the back row, and he saw a familiar chunk of honey blonde hair. It was the girl he had bumped into at the diner earlier that morning. He watched her silhouette and once again thought she was absolutely beautiful. She had gotten changed, and was now wearing a black dress and a grey cardigan.

The girl looked sad, and Sam saw a single tear fall down her cheek which she quickly wiped away. He suddenly felt the urge to comfort her as he studied her facial expression and her features. Maybe Janine had been a friend of hers? Her eyes were filled with compassion and sadness and something else that he couldn't quite recognize. Something familiar. Suddenly, she stood up and quietly walked towards the exit, and then she went out the door, quietly and unnoticed by most. He tapped Dean on the shoulder.

"I should go talk to that girl who just left", he whispered, Dean merely nodded. He was lost in his thoughts and Sam wondered if he'd even heard what Sam had just said.

Sam walked out of the chapel, and looked for the mysterious, blonde girl. She was nowhere to be seen. Sam sighed, and went back into the chapel. He had really wanted to talk to her and find out more about her. She seemed interesting. Who was she?

* * *

**  
**After leaving the memorial service, Rika had gotten back to her apartment to get changed. She was now wearing a pair of comfy, black sweater pants and a black tank top. She was also back in her black ballerina flats, and it felt great. The heels she had worn to the service had been hell. She was now walking down the street towards her Watcher's house for a training session. He had turned the basement into a gym and they both made good use of it. He always kept saying how his house was too big for him, two stories and a basement. But he made no effort to move. Hugh liked the house and he had been living there ever since moved with Rika to the States.

When Rika reached the house, she didn't knock. She was expected, and Hugh allowed her to walk in and out of his house as she wanted. He had nothing to hide, and was sort of a father-figure for her. She trusted him more than anyone else in the world.

Rika closed the front door and removed her jacket and scarf. Then she opened the basement door and started walked down the stairs, when she suddenly heard voices. One of them belonged to Hugh, the other to another male. He as well sounded British, but she didn't recognize the voice. She couldn't quite make out what they were talking about. When she reached the end of the stairs, she saw that Hugh was standing there talking to a man who looked about the same age. The stranger was wearing glasses, a brown suede jacket and a pair of blue jeans. His hair was dark brown and tousled, with slight hints of grey. She could tell he had been very handsome one day, and he still was, in that sort of older man kind of way.

"Hugh?", she tried.

"Oh, hello Rika, come on in!", Hugh turned to her with a huge smile on his face.

"Who's this?", she asked and nodded her head towards the other man.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, I forgot my manners", Hugh excused himself. "This is Rupert Giles, and old friend and colleague. Rupert, this is Rika."

"It's a pleasure to meet you", the man named Rupert said and shook her hand. He had a very kind smile.

"Likewise", she said and smiled back. "So, you're a Watcher too?"

"I am, yes", Rupert responded while looking at her intently, studying her carefully.

"Why are you looking at me like that?", she asked and the other Watcher shook his head, like he had been lost in some deep thoughts that he now was trying to get rid off.

"I'm very sorry", he said. "It's just that you remind me very much of someone very dear to me."

"Your Slayer?", she asked.

"Yes", he merely said. Then he turned to Hugh. "It was a pleasure talking to you again, old friend. I should be heading out, I'm meeting up with Faith in a few hours."

"The same", Hugh replied. "Hopefully we'll meet again soon."

The two men shook each other's hands and then Giles walked up the stairs and exited the basement.

"What was that all about?", Rika asked her Watcher.

"Rupert was just passing through the city on his way to a meeting and decided to pay me a visit", Hugh explained. "I asked him if he had any idea what might be causing the killings, but he didn't. Anyways, we ought to start training. Whatever we are facing you need to be in good shape and fully concentrated."

Rika sighed as she knew her Watcher well enough to know he wasn't going to tell her anything else. That didn't mean she was going to stop trying though. She'd ask him about it again later.

She spent the next half hour warming up with stretching, tai chi and yoga. After that she practised kicks and punches for nearly two hours and felt nearly exhausted afterwards. She thought she was done when Hugh suddenly spoke.

"I'd like you to try a new type of meditation with crystals", he said. "You need to get a better focus, and Rupert recommended this one."

Rika sighed, but she agreed. Hugh didn't have to nag on her, she did what she had to do. After all, staying alive was her biggest concern. And if this could help her later on, it was totally worth it.

Soon she was standing with her hands on top of a block of wood, with her eyes closed, listening to her Watcher's voice. He had placed some crystals in a formation on the floor in front of her. Apparently she was supposed to practise a handstand.

"There is nothing but you. You are the center. And within you, there is the core of your being ... of what you are. Find it ... breathe into it. Focus inward. Let the world fall away ... fall away ... fall away...."

Rika felt strange. She heard her Watcher's voice, but it was distant, like he was at a longer distance from her. His voice was calm and soothing, and rippled in some sort of strange way. She felt completely focused and peaceful. Her eyes flickered open, and she took a deep breath. She pushed herself up into a perfect handstand on the block of wood, her body in a straight line upwards. She closed her eyes once more. She was deeply concentrated and started lifting her left arm. Soon, she was standing on only one of her hands, still managing to keep her balance. She felt strong and completely at ease.

"Good, good job!", she heard Hugh's voice in the distance. He was looking at his Slayer, in awe of her grace. She was such a remarkable creature, the most graceful being he'd ever laid his eyes on. As a Watcher, he couldn't have been more proud of her. "Now, start bringing yourself back to full conscience."

Rika opened her eyes, put her left hand back on the block, pushed herself up and did a backflip off the block and landed perfectly on the floor. She took another deep breath and relaxed. She actually felt good after this little meditation exercise. It had really helped her to get her mind of more pressing issues for a little moment. But she couldn't escape them. She had things to take care of now.


	5. Chapter 4: Dark Come Soon

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the song "Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore.

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Dark Come Soon**

* * *

_Dark, you can't come soon enough for me  
Saved from one more day of misery  
Everything I love, get back from me now  
Everyone I love, I need you now_

_Don't forget a million miles from me  
Safe, and another day can pass by me  
Everything I love, get back from me now  
Everyone I love, I need you now  
So what? I lied, I lie to me, too (come on, come on)  
So what? I lied, I lie to me, too (come on, come on)  
So what?_

_Hold out for the ones you know will love you  
Hide out from the ones you know will love you, too_

Right to the edge, I'm barely there  
Slow to make my move, I'm almost there  
Everything I say, I say to me first  
Everything I do, I do to me first

_Hold out for the ones you know will love you  
Hide out from the ones you know will love you, too_

_Dark, you can't come soon enough for me_  
Tegan and Sara - Dark Come Soon

* * *

While Rika was having a training session with her watcher, Dean and Sam were continuing with their own investigation. The memorial service was over, and they were standing outside the chapel, trying to find someone to talk to. Janine hadn't had a boyfriend, they had found out, and it seemed as she hadn't had that many actual friends. Dean saw a jock-type guy leaning against the chapel wall. That was good, they could pretend to be journalists. Jocks were always the ones stupid and eager enough to talk. Sometimes they might actually let out some good pieces of information.

"Sam, let's go talk to that guy", he said and punched his brother lightly in the arm, getting his attention. Sam looked over at the guy Dean had motioned towards and nodded. They walked up to him.

"Hey there", Dean said and gave the guy a smile. "My name's Dean Anderson and this is my colleague Sam Brody. We're journalists and were writing an article about the deaths here on campus for an Internet magazine. Would you mind us asking you a couple of questions?"

"Whoa, cool!", the guy exclaimed without seeming bothered at all talking to journalists about the deaths of fellow students. "Yeah, sure, ask me anything!"

Dean was chuckling on the inside. "_So predictable_", he thought. Sam just felt disgusted at the guy's lack of tact.

"Well, you can start by giving us your name", Dean said, trying to sound professional.

"It's Mike, Mike Bailey", the guy responded and looked excited. "B-A-I-L-E-Y."

"So, Mike", Dean said, casually. "We've heard there've been some weird killings around campus lately. What's up with that, huh?"

"Yeah, I know", Mike said. "Everyone's really creeped out."

"Did you know any of the victims?", Sam asked curiously.

Mike shook his head. "To be honest, not really", he answered. "They were that type nobody really notices. I didn't pay much attention to them anyways. They were just normal people, nothing out of the ordinary."

"What are you doing at the service then?", Sam asked.

"Everyone else went, I wanted to see what the fuss was all about", Mike answered. Sam felt like shuddering. He couldn't believe this guy. People had died and he 'wanted to see what the _fuss_ was all about'. People like this guy made him sick.

"So, who found the bodies?", Dean asked.

"I only know who found the first one", Mike replied hesitantly. "You could ask her about it if you want to, she probably knows more than I do. She knows about everything that's happening around campus since she's the editor in chief for The Daily Free Press, so it's kind of her job, I guess. Oh, and she knew Janine."

"Who's 'she'?", Sam asked.

"Her name's Rika", Mike asked. "She's quite popular around here, everyone likes her. I've been trying to ask her out, but she keeps refusing. I've no idea why."

"_Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would turn you down, Casanova_", Sam thought.

"Anyways, she found the first body, but she didn't seem that creeped out by it. Everyone kept asking her about it, but she didn't really want to talk about it", Mike continued.

Dean tried to picture the girl. He was hoping she might be hot. The girls they talked to being hot? Always a bonus. And he might have a chance at charming her. He was a guy with needs, after all.

"Where can we find this Rika?", Sam asked hopefully.

"I don't think she has anymore classes today, but you can probably find her tonight at Joe's", Mike said. "It's a bar café thing where we students usually hang out, and her band is playing there tonight. You can't miss her."

Dean was starting to like this mystery girl. She was in a band! He found that sort of sexy, especially if she had one of those smoky voices.

"Thanks", Sam said and smiled. "Thanks for talking to us, you can just Google the article later."

"Oh, it was nothing! Glad I could help you out", Mike said and gave them a big smile.

"_I bet you are, Mr. Attention Seeker"_, Sam thought.

Dean and Sam headed back to the motel to get some rest as they were going to try to find this mysterious Rika later that night. She was basically their only lead.

* * *

The day hadn't turned out as beautiful as Rika had hoped earlier that morning. The weather was lovely, but her mood wasn't. She had had a very frustrating talk with Hugh, her Watcher, after their training session. He had nothing new to tell her about the killings, and her own research hadn't paid off either.

_"I have been doing some research, but I have absolutely nothing. Not even any dead people who might be haunting campus", Hugh had said._

_"That's great. Absolutely fantastic. I feel really helpless right now, like it's my fault that I couldn't save them", Rika had sighed._

_"Don't blame yourself, there was nothing you could've done. Just concentrate on your classes now, and I'll see what I can find", Hugh had tried to calm her. "It might be a demon. We'll find something sooner or later. We always do."_

_"Hopefully sooner", Rika had muttered._

Suddenly, Rika's day had taken a turn for the worse. She was also frustrated since her Watcher hadn't told her more about this mysterious other Watcher, Rupert Giles. She was longing for it to become dark, so she could relax while she was singing during her band's gig. Maybe after that she could dust a couple of vamps and get that frustration and tension she had been feeling out of her body. On top of everything, she couldn't stop thinking about the guy she had met earlier that morning. She sighed and continued towards class. She still had that exam to get through.

* * *

Sam and Dean walked into Joe's Bar that later that night. It was about 8PM, and the bar was packed with students drinking and enjoying themselves. Sam didn't share his brother's love for bars, he preferred something more quiet and intimate.

Then, suddenly, he heard a voice in the microphone from the stage. A very familiar voice, a voice he had been thinking about all day.

"Hi guys, and welcome to Joe's", the voice said. _Her_ voice. "I'm Rika, and we'll be playing here tonight. Most of you already know who we are, so I'll skip the formal introductions thing. We'll start with something new."

Sam caught a glance of the girl on the stage. It was the girl from the diner this morning, the one who also had left the memorial service in tears. She was wearing skinny, grey jeans, a black t-shirt with some colourful print and a pair of black Chuck Taylor hightops. The t-shirt and the jeans fit her body perfectly, and her long blonde hair fell down over her shoulders, framing her soft face. Her hair was messy, probably on purpose, and Sam had to admit that she was sporting the whole bed head rock chick look really well.

In ways he was a bit pissed off at himself. He should have put the pieces together when Mike said she wrote for The Daily Free Press, she was a journalism student after all. So, this was Rika. A feeling of sadness suddenly struck him, as she realized she had been the one to find the first body. She had probably been friends with Janine, and had lost someone. He would have wanted to protect her from that. He snapped out of his thoughts as she started singing. The band was actually really good, and she had a nice voice.

_I got a lot to say to you  
Yeah, I got a lot to say  
I noticed your eyes are always glued to me  
Keeping them here  
And it makes no sense at all_

_They taped over your mouth  
Scribbled out the truth with their lies  
Your little spies  
They taped over your mouth  
Scribbled out the truth with their lies  
Your little spies_

Sam felt weird. It was almost as if she was singing about him, even though he knew she wasn't. It was just a coincidence that the lyrics fit. Besides, she didn't know he was a liar, not yet at least. And he had been staring at her every chance he got. There was just something about her that– He was interrupted in his thoughts as Dean suddenly knocked him on the shoulder.

_Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone  
Just the one-two of us, who's counting on  
That never happens  
I guess I'm dreaming again  
Let's be more than this_

"Look, our mysterious Rika chick is the hottie from the diner this morning", Dean said with a huge grin on his face. "She's awesome."_  
_

_If you want to play it like a game  
Well, come on, come on, let's play  
Cause I'd rather waste my life pretending  
Than have to forget you for one whole minute_

"Yeah, I noticed", Sam said, feeling his cheeks getting slightly warmer.

"I'll go talk to her once they're finished playing, we can't both ambush her", Dean said with a smirk. Sam knew that look. Dean wanted to flirt with Rika, maybe get her to bed. Sam wasn't going to let Dean do that, not this time. Not this girl.

"Dude, why do you always get to talk to the hot girls?", he said. "Besides, I'm more discrete than you can ever be. She's just lost a friend and seen a dead body. We have to be careful when talking to her."

"Oh fine, we'll do it your way, you freak", Dean said. "Paper, rock, scissors." He held out his fist.

Sam sighed, but held out his own fist as well. They played paper rock scissors, and Sam won. Inside he chuckled. Dean was so predictable. "_Always with the scissors, Dean_", he thought.

"Dammit!" Dean looked pissed and disappointed. "I call a do over!"

"What are you, five? And also... No way, you lost", Sam said with a slight smirk, secretly thanking his good luck.

"Fine", Dean resigned with a shrug "I'll go get a drink."

Dean turned his back at Sam and walked up to the bar. Sam, on the other hand, continued to look at Rika performing. She had an amazing stage presence. Once she looked straight into his eyes and noticed him staring. He quickly turned his head away, feeling his face getting flushed. "_Oh come on, Sam_", he thought. He didn't want to make a fool out of himself. Not this time.


	6. Chapter 5: Wandering Soul

**Chapter 5 – Wandering Soul**

* * *

_I'm wanting  
your body  
your mind and soul for a moral-less state  
of that which I  
can't get out of my  
endless thoughts of_

_the sharp edge of you  
cuts my voice  
when I say your name  
I'm thinking that_

_I'm just a wandering soul  
waiting for someone to take hold  
and I'd choose not to love you  
I've been here too many times before_

_reflection  
imagined  
you're one thing in the front of my mind  
staring me into my blue eyes_

_I'm just a wandering soul  
waiting for someone to take hold  
and I would choose not to love you  
I've been here too many times before_  
Alex Parks - Wandering Soul

* * *

Rika was standing on stage and singing 'Crushcrushcrush', the first song of the evening. That was when she noticed _him_. He was standing at the back of the bar, the guy she had met earlier that morning. First his friend was with him, and they seemed like they were arguing about something. His friend soon left for the bar, probably to get a drink, but the he was still there, and he was watching her. Once she caught him staring, and she felt her knees weaken a bit when she looked into his eyes. He blushed and turned his head away, and she couldn't help smiling. He seemed a bit shy and awkward, but she was still strangely drawn to him. And she felt quite good about him apparently checking her out. But if she was going to get through this concert without embarrassing herself, she had to push him out of her thoughts.

She decided not to give a thought to her mission as the Slayer, or the mysterious killings. She concentrated so hard on the singing that she soon managed to push the guy out of her mind too and avoided looking his way again.

Once they had played their last song, she thanked the crowd of students and jumped off the stage, leaving the guys to take care of their instruments. She went to sit at a quiet table in the corner, where she had left her bag and her jacket. She took out a book, and started reading.

"Is this seat taken?" She suddenly heard a familiar voice next to her. She looked up and saw Mr Tall-Dark-and-Handsome smiling towards her.

"No, go ahead", she said and smiled. "Aren't you the guy I bumped right into earlier?"

He sat down and laughed, a cute little laugh where he slightly turned his head to the left. She was sort of thankful that she wasn't standing at the moment, she might have tumbled towards the ground. It wasn't often a guy just smiling was able to have that effect on her.

"Yeah, I am", he said and crossed his arms on the table. She could see the fine muscular lines of his arms underneath the blue and white plaid button down shirt he was wearing. "You remembered me from this morning though, I didn't think you would."

He smiled again. "I'm Sam, by the way." He reached out his hand.

"Rika", she said and took his hand. She almost pulled it back instantly as a jolt of static electricity ran through her hand when they touched. She managed to control herself though, and shook his hand like a civilized person before letting go.

"That's quite an unusual name. You're not from around here are you? You have some slight accent I can't recognize." There was something about the way he looked at her when he said that. He looked genuinely intrigued, like he really wanted to get to know her. "_Huh_", she thought.

"I'm from Finland."

"Scandinavian? That explains it", he said, still smiling. How much could a guy smile? "How long have you been here?"

"For five years now, since I graduated from high school back home", she said. "It was a big change since I'm from the Finnish countryside, population 3000. My accent is Swedish actually, seeing as I'm a Finland-Swede. There was this thing where Finland belonged to Sweden for a couple of hundred years, I'm not going to get in to that cause it's a long and boring history lesson, but Swedish is the second official language. But yeah, I'm rambling now. I should probably shut up."

"_Shut up, Rika. Just shut. The. Hell. Up._"

He laughed at her final comment. "How come you moved here? You're a long way from home."

"I needed a change, I guess." She couldn't tell him the real reason. No way.

"So, what are you taking?", he asked her. He liked her already, she was witty and quite funny and really likeable.

"Journalism, minor in psychology", she replied. She could tell he was impressed when she mentioned the psychology, his eyes widened a bit before he caught his cool again.

"That sounds great" he said, and smiled again. Rika could feel her heart thumping. "So, how long have you wanted to be a journalist?"

"Since I was 16", she explained. "I don't know, I just felt like it was my calling. I still do."

"So, I heard about the killings on campus", Sam said suddenly. "Someone mentioned you found the first body, and that you knew the latest victim?"

Rika's mood changed towards the worse. "_Damn it_"_,_ she thought. "_Why'd he have to bring that up? I was in such a good mood_"_._ She could feel her expression darkening.

"You okay?", he asked softly. His voice was filled with compassion and he had this worried look in his eyes. It startled her for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine", she said. "Not running around with wind in my hair, the hills are alive with the sound of music fine, but still. I'd just prefer not to talk about it."

Sam looked sad suddenly. She noticed something in his eyes she hadn't seen before. His eyes looked older than he was, like they had seen too much. Just like her own, she would imagine. Who was this guy?

"I'm sorry", he said and looked down.

"Nah, it's okay, I'm just tired of everyone asking me about it", she quickly replied. She didn't want to scare him off, but him asking about the killings seemed suspicious. "How come you're so interested?"

"I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it", he explained. "I'm sort of a journalist, I'm writing an article about the whole thing for this Internet magazine. I was hoping you would let me interview you. I'm sorry, but I had to ask."

Rika instantly got aggravated. The journalism thing was such bullshit. He wasn't a journalist, he was most definitely lying to her. And he had seemed so nice, but he had been using her for his own gain. "_You sure know how to pick 'em_", she thought, shook her head and let out a little sarcastic snicker.

"That's crap, and you know it", she said. "You're no journalist."

"Yeah, I am!". He tried to convince her, but she wasn't buying it. Not at all.

"No, you're not. I'm a journalism student so I should know", she said. "A, you're not taking any notes. You don't even have a tape-recorder. Journalists always take some sort of notes. Some people may have great memory, but no one has a memory that good. B, you're too young. C, you don't exactly act like one."

Sam had nothing to say. He just sat there staring at her, and he had no words. He was completely in shock that she had figured out his lie even though he hadn't exactly been that smooth about it.

Until he was willing to tell her the truth, Rika wasn't going to talk to him again. Then suddenly her cellphone rang, and at that moment it was a welcome interruption. She managed to get it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. Hugh was called 'Watcher dude' on her cell.

"Sorry, I have to get this" she excused herself and put one hand to her other ear, turning away slightly.

"_I think I've found a lead on the killings. If my suspicions are right... Well, I need to talk to you urgently. I'm at the library._"

"Sure, I'll be there in a minute."

Rika hung up and put the cellphone back into her pocket. She quickly picked her book up and stuffed into the bag, stood up and put on her jacket and threw the bag over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Sam, I have to go", she said with a smile. "Maybe I'll see you later."

She rushed off, leaving him no chance to respond. "_Sorry I can't hang out with you_", she thought. "_Call me a wandering soul or whatever, but the mission comes first. Especially before guys who lie to me. I've been through this too many times to go through it again. I have no use for bullshit._"

* * *

When Rika left so suddenly, Sam was left with his mouth open, literally, and very confused. One minute she was there, the other she was gone with the wind. The talk he had had with her had been very interesting. There was something about this girl he couldn't quite put his finger on. She was definitely beautiful, smart and witty. And completely his type. But he also had a feeling there was something she wasn't telling him. He had a feeling she knew more than she was giving off. He almost regretted asking her about the body, maybe she would have stayed. He should have been smoother about the whole thing, maybe getting it out of her eventually, and not right away. Why couldn't he just have come up with some other lie when she asked him why he wanted to know about the killings?

He had seen her face darken, and her smile had suddenly been gone. It was frustrating that he had gotten nothing new out of the discussion with her, other than learning to know more about her background. She was still a bit of a mystery to him. Okay, maybe he hadn't been that discrete, he had been a bit direct about the killings. And she had caught him lying about being a journalist. That excuse usually worked. They usually tried to convince people they were cops or feds, counsellors or journalists... Once they had even pretended to be priests. Sam shuddered at the memory.

Suddenly he felt a pat on his shoulder. "You failed, you freak", he heard Dean's voice. "You should have let me talk to her, you have no way with women. She's probably off to have hot, naked sex with some other guy right now."

"No, she's not", Sam protested but gulped at the thought of her with some other guy. Why was that? "I might not have gotten any more useful information, but her mood changed when I mentioned the body she found. There's something she isn't telling me, I'm sure of it."

"Sammy, you suck at the undercover thing. Maybe we need to find out more about our mystery girl then", Dean replied. "Come on, let's follow her."

"Dude, we're not going to stalk her!", Sam argued.

"Oh, come on bitch, you know you want to", Dean said and started walking. Sam sighed and followed his brother.

"Jerk" Sam muttered, but he couldn't argue with Dean. He _did _want to follow her, learn more about her. The girl that had been on his mind the entire day and she didn't see to be getting out of his head anytime soon either.

* * *

Dean pulled the Impala over outside the library to where he and Sam had followed Rika. They saw her go in, but stayed in the car. About fifteen minutes later she reappeared outside of the library, in a heated discussion with an older male, in his 50's probably, wearing a tweed suit. She looked angry. Maybe he was a professor that was harassing her or something?

She seemed to calm down as she talked to the older man. He patted her shoulder in a reassuring, father-like way. Dean watched her nod in understanding and then turning around, starting to walk away. The older man returned to the building and Dean turned the ignition key.

"Let's follow her", he said and Sam who looked really concentrated at watching the conversation between the man and Rika, simply nodded. Dean wondered where she would lead them.

* * *

When Sam and Dean were in the car, following Rika from the library where she had had an intense conversation with an older man, Sam got a headache. He knew this kind of headache, it wasn't a normal one. He was about to get a vision. He groaned when the pain struck him.

_A flash of blonde hair. Her hair. She fell to the ground as something hit her. He could see a pair of fangs glowing in the moonlight. Vampire. A few flashing images he couldn't quite make out and a sound of something breaking._

Then the vision was over, and Sam screamed in agony. The pain in his head was too much and completely unexpected. He hated when this happened. He hated the damn visions.

"Sam! Sammy!" Sam heard Dean shouting and felt touching his shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but Rika isn't", Sam replied with a worried tone to his voice. "I had a vision. She's getting attacked by a vampire, you need to get to her fast. We can't let it kill her."

"But you only have visions abou–", Dean interrupted himself. "She does fit the pattern, she's about the same age as you. Maybe she's one of you freaks?"

"Maybe", Sam replied and massaged his head. "Just hurry".

If Rika was like him... One of the people chosen by the yellow-eyed demon... He hoped he could help her. But that would come later, he needed to save her first. He wouldn't be able to take it if she died. Right now, he was really concerned.

"_Please let us get to her in time_", he prayed.


	7. Chapter 6: Hollaback Girl

**Chapter 5 – Hollaback Girl**

* * *

_I heard that you were talking shit  
And you didn't think that I would hear it  
People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up  
So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack  
Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out  
That's right, put your pom-poms downs, getting everybody fired up_

_So that's right dude, meet me at the bleachers  
No principals, no student-teachers  
Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one  
So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all  
Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you  
That's right I'm the last one standing, another one bites the dust_

_A few times I've been around that track  
So it's not just gonna happen like that  
Because I ain't no hollaback girl  
I ain't no hollaback girl_  
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

* * *

Rika had arrived at the library pretty fast, within about fifteen minutes on foot. The perks of Slayer speed. She had met with her Watcher in one of the reading rooms, where he had had his nose buried in a load of books like usual and had the computer turned on.

_"So, what's the news?", she had asked._

_"I found something that potentially might be our killer", Hugh responded. "A demon called Belphegor. It feeds on human life-force, as it sucks the life out of its victims, leaving no apparent cause of death."_

_"It sounds like it could be a fit", Rika had said and nodded. "So, how do I kill it?"_

_"It's not particularily powerful from what I reckon based upon my sources, so the usual things. Beheading should do the trick", Hugh had explained._

"That's good to know."

_"We'll do a tracking spell tomorrow night, to see if we can find it", Hugh had continued. "Meanwhile, maybe you could patrol tonight, see if you find anything out of the ordinary."_

_"Sure", Rika had replied. "I'm already on my way"._

_Hugh had followed her outside._

_"Just take care of yourself", he had warned. "If you manage to stumble upon Belphegor by accident, be cautious. Don't let his mouth come near you, he uses it to drain your life-force"._

_"Okay, so no making out with the demon then", Rika had joked and nodded._

_"I'm not joking." Hugh had suddenly seemed angry and Rika snapped._

_"I can take care of myself you know!", she had spat. "I'm not a 16-year-old anymore."_

_Hugh had put his hand on her shoulder. He was almost like a father to her, which was good since she hadn't seen her own in a couple of months, not since Christmas. He was her American family. Well, except for the fact that neither of them was actually American. But still, she couldn't have made it without his support. He was the only person in the world she could talk to about her destiny and the work she had to do._

_"I know, I just don't want you to get hurt."_

_She had calmed down a bit and smiled. "I won't."_

After that, Rika had walked away, towards the cemetery. She was almost there, with a firm grip on the stake in her hand. Her slayer sense suddenly started tingling. _"There's something here", _she thought, but the thought came too late as she was knocked to the ground by something. She landed on a branch that snapped, but thankfully it didn't hurt. She looked up and saw a pair of fangs glowing in the moonlight. _"Great, just what I was hoping for. A simple, stupid vamp."_ She kicked the vampire off of her, and it flew into one of the headstones nearby. She did a little flippy jump thing off the ground and stood up, fists raised, ready to kick ass. The vampire had gotten back on its feet as well and was now staring at her with a confused expression. He was merely a teenager, or had been when he was turned. She felt sorry for the poor kid, but it wasn't him anymore. Now there was only the demon.

"Tell me, have you ever heard the expression 'biting off more than you can chew?' ", Rika asked while tilting her head a bit so she could get a closer look of the vampire. He looked average, no strange cultish clothing or anything.

"The hell are you going on about?", the vampire asked angrily, but with a confused undertone to his voice. She could see the bloodthirst in his eyes. He'd definitely kill her if he got the chance. Fortunately for her and unfortunately for him, we wouldn't be getting that chance.

"Okay, how about the expression 'Oh God, my leg, my leg'?", she tried.

The vampire looked utterly confused and she used it to her advantage. She threw a punch and then kicked him in the knee. The vampire fell to the ground and bent over in a fetal position, screaming in pain while clutching his knee. "Oh God, my leg!", he screamed.

"See, now we're communicating", she said with a slight smile.

In an instant, the vampire got up from the ground and charged towards her with a slight limp. She anticipated his next move and hit him with a spin kick before he got a chance to do anything. The vampire landed on the ground a bit further away from her. She rushed towards it, the familiar adrenaline coursing through her veins. The vampire was attempting to get up, but she kicked it in the head right before staking it without hesitating one bit. The vampire turned into a pile of dust in front of her feet.

"Det var en tid sen det var så här lätt", she muttered to herself and brushes the dirt off her jeans with her hands. Then she heard a sound and looked up. She saw Sam and his friend standing a few meters away from her, with their mouths open in confusion. "_Oh crap",_ she thought. _"I have a feeling they won't believe the 'gangs on PCP' explanation"._

* * *

Sam was worried sick when he and Dean rushed towards the cemetery. _"Please God, let me save her. I can't lose another one."_ He was holding a crossbow, Dean had a stake and a bottle of Holy Water.

They arrived just in time to see Rika getting knocked down by the vampire, and see it bend over her. Sam felt helpless and worried and was about to fire the crossbow, when she kicked the vampire and it flew atleast four meters.

"_What the hell?",_ he thought right about when Rika did this impressing jump off the ground by pressing her hands against the grass for leverage and jumping up with her back arched. The vampire had gotten up too and it was standing in front of her, just staring at her. Sam felt his jaw drop.

"Tell me, have you ever heard the expression 'biting off more than you can chew?' ", he heard her say with an air of nonchalant confidence.

The vampire looked at her, utterly confused and asked her what she was talking about. "Okay, how about the expression 'Oh God, my leg, my leg?' ", she quickly retorted.

_"She knows",_ Sam thought. _"She knows it's a vampire, and she's going to fight it. But how?"_

She punched the vampire with ease, without even flinching and then quickly kicked its knee, upon which it fell to the ground and yelled exactly the thing she had predicted. He watched her delivering an impressing spinning kick, the vampire flying and her dusting it. He heard her say something in a language he didn't know – probably Swedish, it was her native language after all – and then she looked up, right at them.

She looked surprised for a moment, but then her expression became neutral and she walked towards them slowly with her hands raised.

"Okay, so I can explain", she said calmly. Then she noticed the weapons they were carrying and an expression of sudden realization appeared on her face "Ah, hunters. Pfft."

Sam felt confused. She knew they were hunters? How did she know about that? And let alone, how did she know about vampires and killing them? And where had she learned how to fight like that? His head was spinning with all of the questions, she was just a girl. They had never, ever seen a girl this small single-handedly taking down anything before, let alone a vampire. How was it possible?

"I figured there was something strange about you two", she said and smiled. "I knew you weren't a journalist!"

"Who are you?", Dean asked. Sam saw his brother was just about as confused as himself.

"Maybe we should talk somewhere more private, I'll explain it as well as I can, I promise", she said and Sam nodded in agreement. "You guys have a car?"

"Yeah", Dean said, still looking very suspicious. Sam couldn't blame him, but instinctively he knew that Rika was one of the good guys and not another Meg. He just didn't get the evil vibe from her.

They all walked towards the Impala, without a word. Dean kept a cautious eye on Rika and when they reached the car Dean showed her to the back seat and she sat down there, Sam and Dean in their usual places. Sam looked as Dean handed her a bottle of Holy Water and she looked at him in disbelief.

"Is this really necessary?", she asked him and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah", Dean said. "If you're human it shouldn't hurt you, just a bit of Holy Water"

Rika drank the entire bottle in a series of gulps and threw it back towards Dean who caught it mid-air. She didn't even flinch. "Happy now?"

"So, where to?", Dean asked, seemingly satisfied and calmed down by her reaction to the Holy Water.

"My place", she said and gave him an address. The drive to her apartment was silent.

Dean was just about as confused as his brother at the cemetery. He was impressed by Rika, though. She was gorgeous, funny and apparently a pretty good fighter. He thought it was amazing someone so petite could take out a vampire all by herself. But he had to make sure she wasn't a demon or vampire, with that kind of strength. He was happy when she passed the Holy Water test. It meant she was human, or at least, not a demon. They might not have to waste her. "_I'm so marrying that chick if she's human", _he thought when he was driving towards her apartment.

When they got there, Sam and Dean followed her up the stairs to her apartment. She unlocked the door, opened it and gestured them to step inside.

* * *

Rika followed Sam and the other guy into her own apartment. Funny, she didn't even know Sam's friend's name yet and here he was, inside her apartment. Now that she had figured out they were hunters, things would be much easier to explain. She was a bit concerned though, as to how they would react to the truth about her.

Most hunters were amateurs in comparison to her. They lacked her strength and speed. Hugh had told her about so called 'hunters' before, and that Slayers usually avoided revealing their identity to hunters who rarely even knew Slayers existed. But the best ones did. Still, they were playing in completely different leagues. Although, when Dean opened the trunk to his car to put their weapons away she was almost impressed when she saw the arsenal they were carrying. With emphasis on almost.

To the naked eye, her small but cosy apartment looked normal. She decorated it herself. There were photos on the wall, from her previous life back home in Finland. Graduation, old friends and family. She loved doing photography, so she had also framed some of her more artsy photography. There was a small TV she rarely watched, a computer and a bookshelf. Her old guitar, which she used when writing songs, was leaning against the wall in a corner. Papers, notes and books were scattered across her desk. It was the apartment of the average college student.

However, the box under her bed was anything but normal. It was filled with old books about demons and other forms of evil, spellbooks and weapons of all kinds. Maybe she could show them to Sam and his friend. She realized no person in her American life had ever been through these doors, except for her Watcher. And she had just let two hunters she didn't even know through the doors.

"Go ahead, sit down", she said and pointed towards the beige couch. Sam and his friend sat down, and she sat down on a chair across from them. Then there was silence.

"So, maybe someone should speak", Sam said. It looked like he was trying to find some words.

Rika looked at them, not knowing how to begin. Just like Sam apparently.

"Okay, I'll go first", the other guy said. "What the Hell are you?"

"Cancer on the cusp of Leo", she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You?"

"I'm sorry", Sam said quickly. "Dean tends to be a bit direct."

"No shit, Sherlock", she replied and looked down, pondering on how she should begin. She hesitated before looking up at them and opening her mouth.

"I'm the Slayer."

"What?!", the guys said in chorus and looked more confused than ever.

"Slayer. Comma. _The_", she tried. "She who hangs out in the cemeteries a lot? The Chosen One? Prophecy chick?"

They still looked confused, and quite frankly, she was surprised. She would have thought two professional hunters like themselves would have at least _heard_ of the Slayer myth. But apparently not. "You two really don't have the faintest idea who I am, do you?", she said feeling slightly amused looking at their confused faces. "And you call yourselves hunters."


	8. Chapter 7: Revelations

**Chapter 7 – Revelations**

* * *

_You know what to do, you know what I did  
Since you know everything just clue me in  
I am such a wreck, I am such a mess  
I know what I know, why don't you fill in the rest?  
I will bring you down, I will make it bad  
While you're feelin' proud, why don't you help me?_

_Such a shame that I wouldn't know by now  
Your revelations  
Cut me in, I don't wanna live without  
Your revelations, revelations_

_You know what to say, you know what I said  
You know what I dream sleeping in my bed  
You hold all the keys, you know all the roads  
Why don't you guide me in, if I'm such a lost soul?  
I'm spinnin' 'round, I will make you ill  
Since I'm so broken down, why don't you fix me?_

_I am haunted when I am sleeping  
Try to give without receiving  
It's in the applebite  
It's in the days and nights  
In the afterlife we'll reap_  
Audioslave – Revelations

* * *

Sam was baffled. Her apartment looked pretty normal. He was impressed at her collection of books; Dostojevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Chaucer, Shakespeare... She had all the classics, and some pretty heavy reading. He even spotted a few titles in different languages, one book was in French and another in German.

He looked at Rika, who just had told them that she was someone or something called 'the Slayer'. He had never heard the expression before, and he still had no idea who she was. He couldn't even remember reading the term in his Dad's journal, and that contained just about everything they knew about demons and other supernatural beings.

"You two really have no idea who I am, do you?", she said, clearly amused. "And you call yourselves hunters."

"You might have to elaborate a bit", Sam said with a gulp and looked at her. "We've never heard about Slayers before."

She shook her head, laughed and got up from her chair. He still loved her laugh, it was warm and kind. It almost made him smile, but he had to keep his cool. He watched her as she walked into her bedroom, and pulled something out from underneath her bed. She came back carrying a big, thick book that looked very old. 'Vampyr' was the title and she blew some of the dust away from on top of it. Apparently she hadn't been reading it in a while.

"Okay then. I'm the Slayer. Some say Vampire Slayer, others prefer to speak of the Chosen One. Or actually, I'm one of them, as there are three of us these days. There weren't always seeing as there's really only supposed to be one, but there was a little mishap. I'm the youngest one", she explained.

Sam watched as she opened the book, wondering what she meant about there being a mishap.

"There's a prophecy", she said and started reading from the book. "_Into each generation a girl is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer_."

Sam let the words sink in. Apparently, she was destined to fight evil. He had been right, she knew more than she had been giving off. He wasn't still sure it was a good thing.

"And you're she?", Dean asked.

"Yes", she responded. "Or actually one out of three these days like I said, it's complicated."

"So, how did you become the Slayer?", Sam asked curiously. He was still trying to wrap his head around the whole thing.

"Well, there are a lot of potential slayers in the world. Young girls. When the old slayer dies, gets killed, one of the potentials is called and she gets her powers. I'm not quite sure how it works, just that very ancient magicks are involved", Rika explained. "I was called when I was sixteen. I'm sort of this big magnet I guess, evil's drawn to me and I'm supposed to fight it. People around me tend to get hurt in the process, so I moved here just to keep my family out of harm's way."

"She gets her powers?", Sam asked. He wondered what she meant. What powers?

"Well, the Slayer package comes with certain... I guess you could call them perks", she elaborated with an ironic smile. "I'm not exactly your average Jane. I'm much stronger and faster than the average girl. I also have really good hearing and sight, and I can sort of sense the supernatural if I come across it. If I stood in a room with my eyes closed, and there was a vampire, I could find him. Oh, and I heal quite fast."

She showed them a small cut on her arm. It looked like she'd had it for a couple of weeks and it was almost healed. "I got this one when I fought that vampire about half an hour ago", she said. "It's almost gone now."

"So, that explains how you managed to throw that vampire into the air?", Dean asked for clarification.

"Yup", she said and nodded. Then she smiled shyly. "Also, I sometimes have prophetic dreams."

"Prophetic dreams?", Sam asked and started coughing. That was something he recognized.

"Sometimes I get visions when I'm sleeping", she said. "According to my Watcher it's to help me fight what's coming next. They're usually freakishly cryptic though, not much real information."

Dean started chuckling under his breath and Sam felt Dean patting him on the back. "You and Sam have a lot in common", he said. "He's a big freak, getting visions and all that. He's pretty much a gigantic evil magnet too.."

Sam watched Rika turn towards him, her eyes widened. "I guess that brings up the next topic", she said calmly. "Who the hell are you two? I'm not the only liar in the room."

Rika was quite nervous when she gave Sam and Dean the basics on who she was. When Dean mentioned Sam getting visions, she was surprised. Now it was their turn to explain.

"We're Sam and Dean Winchester. Our mom was killed by a demon on the night of my six month birthday", Sam explained. "Dean was four at the time. Well, shortly after I turned 22 I started to get this visions, all with a connection to the demon that killed my mom. That's when I found out I wasn't the only one. We met a guy with telekinesis, and one who could get people to do whatever he wanted them to. Apparently the demon did something to us and gave us these powers, and we're still not sure why."

"_Well, if that's not interesting, I don't know what is_", Rika thought, but she said nothing. She let Sam continue his story.

Sam on the other hand wasn't that sure why he was telling her all of this. He was really coming clean about everything. But somehow he just knew he could trust her and that telling her was safe. She was a friend. "Well, when mom died...", he continued. "...our dad started hunting demons. He taught us everything he know, how to fight. I wanted a normal life, so I escaped to college. Then, my girlfriend was killed by the same demon that killed our mom. I realized a normal life wasn't an option. Since then, me and Dean have been on the road, driving around and fighting evil where we can find it. Spirits, demons..."

Rika nodded and when he looked into her eyes he was startled by the empathy he saw in them.

"I'm sorry about your girlfriend" she said softly. She really felt for Sam, as she recognized parts of herself in him. She hadn't lost a loved one yet since she had tried to isolate herself and not to get too close to anyone, but it had been a close call in high school when her first love nearly had gotten killed by some vampires because of her.

"It's okay, I'm starting to get past it", Sam said but she knew he was lying. She could always tell when he was lying for some odd reason. "You mentioned a Watcher earlier, who's that?" Sam diverted the attention away from himself.

"Well, basically a Slayer slays and a Watcher watches", Rika said and fired a big smile towards them. "Nah, just kidding. Basically every Slayer is assigned a Watcher, to train and teach her. There's a thing called the Watcher's Council in Britain, so my Watcher, Hugh, is quite... Well, British", she finished.

"Was that the one we saw you arguing with outside the library earlier?", Sam asked.

Rika felt a bit upset. They had been following her? "You two were following me?", she asked and Sam immediately noted the hurt in her voice.

"Sam had a vision about you getting attacked by the vampire", Dean explained. "We first thought you were one of the demon's chosen children, that you were like Sam, since he usually only gets visions about his freaky friends."

"I see", she said. "Well, yeah, that was him. He called since he had found a lead about the campus killings. Which I guess is also why you two are here. Sam wasn't exactly stealthy when he tried to get some information out of me."

"You know what's behind the deaths?", Sam asked.

"Yeah, we think so. Hugh found out it's a demon called Belphegor, it sucks the life out of people leaving no trace except deadness", she explained. "We suspected vampires at first, but then we broke into the morgue–"

Dean interrupted her. "You broke into the morgue?!", he asked.

"Yeah", she replied and felt a bit confused, looking from Sam to Dean.

Dean looked at his brother and playfully punched his arm. "Man, this chick is awesome!", he said and chuckled.

"Is he always like this?", Rika asked Sam.

"Pretty much", Sam replied with an apologetic smile. Once again, Rika melt. "Don't mind him. Just continue."

"Well, we found no puncture wounds so we ruled out vampires", she continued. "Hugh did some research and found a matching demon. We were going to do a tracking spell tomorrow so I can kill it."

"You can do magic?", Sam asked.

She could tell he was getting more and more impressed by her. There was no reason for that, it wasn't like she was some sort of über wicca or anything. She felt her cheeks getting flushed. "Just some basic stuff that's useful when slaying is concerned", she replied shyly. "Floating a pencil, tracking spells, balls of sunshine, stuff like that. Nothing impressive."

"That's more than we know" Dean said and looked defeated and impressed at the same time. "We've done exorcisms and stuff like that, but floating stuff?"

"Well, I'm not that good at it since I'm not a wicca. I guess I've just learned a couple of party tricks", she explained.

"Why don't you call us tomorrow when you're doing the tracking spell, and we could come help you kill this... Belphegor?", Sam suggested.

"I'm not sure I need the help", she replied with a light shook of head. "You guys are amateurs compared to me, no offense, and you might get in the way. You lack my strength and speed."

"Please?", Sam pleaded. "I don't want you to get hurt or killed. We could just be your extra backup. Besides, we already started this hunt, and we wouldn't like to leave without doing any good."

"Fine", Rika resigned and sighed. She knew she wouldn't need them. She had survived seven years on her own. She didn't want to worry Sam though, she liked him way more than she should, so God forbid. She agreed.

They exchanged numbers and soon Sam and Dean were out the door. Rika changed into her pyjamas, brushed her teeth, went to lie down on her bed and closed her eyes. It had been a long day, and she was tired. But she already knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. She was thinking about Sam. What was he doing to her?

* * *

Dean had been right about Rika – he liked her. Most definitely. She was funny, she had broken into a morgue, she was in a band and she fought demons. Just his kind of girl. He could tell Sammy had a thing for her though, so he kept himself from flirting with her. He'd seen those careful, shy glances Sam and Rika had been throwing each other while the other wasn't looking. The tension and chemistry between the two of the was undeniable.

"_This one is Sam's_", he thought. "_Hands off, Dean._"

He was still confused about her real identity though, and a bit pissed about the fact that she had called them amateurs. They were nothing but amateurs.

"Is there any mention of Slayers in Dad's journal?", Dean asked Sam once they were back at the motel. Sam had been flipping through the journal that once had been their father's in the car during the ride back, his brow furrowed and this thoughtful expression on his face.

"No, nothing", Sam replied with a sigh.

"Looks like Dad had no idea they existed then." Dean rubbed his jaw.

"I figured as much," Sam said and looked out the window of their motel room, right before walking towards his bed and laying down with his clothes on and everything. He was exhausted. It had been a long and interesting day. On top of everything, he couldn't seem to get this girl out of his head. Especially not now when he had found out who she really was. They had more in common than he had realized.

Dean, on the other hand, sat down in front of the TV. He wasn't feeling sleepy. He sat there, listening to Sam snore and flipping through channels until the TV did the snowy thing, lost in deep thoughts.


	9. Chapter 8: All You Wanted

**Note: **This chapter touches some adult themes. Nothing hardcore, but if you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing, you shouldn't read what's after Sam and Rika's discussion in the beginning. _Rated R,_ just in case.

* * *

**Chapter 8 – All You Wanted**

* * *

_I wanted to be like you  
I wanted everything  
So I tried to be like you  
And I got swept away_

_I didn't know that it was so cold  
And you needed someone  
to show you the way  
So I took your hand and we figured out  
That when the tide comes  
I'd take you away_

_If you want to  
I can save you  
I can take you away from here  
So lonely inside  
So busy out there  
And all you wanted  
was somebody who cares_

_I'm sinking slowly  
So hurry hold me  
Your hand is all I have to keep me hanging on  
Please can you tell me  
So I can finally see  
Where you go when you're gone_  
Michelle Branch - All You Wanted

* * *

Sam hadn't slept all that well that night. All he could think about was _her_. He couldn't deny that he felt better knowing she wasn't that vulnerable. Her knowing about demons also made it easier for him, he didn't have to worry about her reaction to his so called 'profession'. A weight had partially lifted from his heart when he found out about her true identity.

The next morning the Winchesters couldn't do much. They were just waiting for Rika to give them a call once she and her Watcher had tracked Belphegor. Dean got bored pretty quickly and told Sam he was going to 'go pick up some chicks' in order to 'kill time', so Sam was left alone, as usual. He didn't have anything elso to do, so he started strolling around Boston, taking in the surroundings and the city.

Without even realizing it, he suddenly found himself outside Rika's apartment block. He was tempted to find out whether she was at home. She shouldn't be anywhere, seeing as she shouldn't have any classes on a Saturday. And he really wished he could find out more about her, talk to her. There was something about her that intrigued him and drew him in.

He went inside and walked up the stairs. Rika was at home, he could hear some music coming from inside her apartment. He swallowed once before he mustered up the courage to knock on her door. It didn't take long before she opened. She looked surprised at seeing him there. She was even more beautiful this morning than the morning before. She wore a black off-the-shoulder t-shirt, a pair of skinny blue jeans and she was barefeet. Her hair was slightly messy and the silver cross she wore around her neck contrasted beautifully against her light, Scandinavian skin. She had a mechanical pencil tucked behind her hear, and it made her look slightly geeky, but Sam liked it. He thought it was adorable.

"Sam!", she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? We're not tracking the demon until tonight."

"I know", he answered and smiled. "Dean went off to get a drink or something, and I had nothing better to do. Can I come in?

Rika smiled and Sam got a very pleasant tingly feeling in his stomach. "Go ahead", she said and took a step back allowing him to pass. "I was doing some writing, so just let me go turn my computer off. Make yourself at home in the living room."

Sam slowly walked into the living room with his hands in his pockets and stopped to look at the photos on her wall. There was one of a younger Rika. She was wearing a black, strapless dress, she was holding a heap of roses in different colours and she had a white hat with a black peak. She looked so happy and radiant.

He suddenly realized she was standing next to him, and he carefully glanced towards her. She only reached to the height of his shoulders. There was a gap between them, and she had her arms crossed, her hands resting on her shoulders. Even Sam wasn't touching her, he was aware of how close to him she actually was.

"My high school graduation", she said. "Back when I had a life."

"Yeah, I know the feeling", he said with a sad smile.

She turned towards him and took a step closer.

"It's easier for you two though", she said, with a sad look in her eyes. "You two could quit if you wanted to. I can't. This isn't a job for me, it's who I am. My destiny. I can never quit."

Sam nodded and listened to her as she continued.

"Basically, I come from a long line of women who don't make it past 25, not normally at least", she said with an ironic laugh. "My time is starting to run out, huh?"

"No", Sam said with his jaw clenched in an attempt to comfort her and shook his head. "I won't let that happen."

She gave him a sad smile, like she didn't believe him. Rika knew there was nothing Sam could do for her. When the time came for her to die, she would. It was all just part of the sacrifice.

With a certain struggle Sam turned away from staring into her eyes and instead he looked at a picture of her, with someone he could only assume were her parents and a younger brother. "Do you miss your family?", he asked.

"I do, more than I can even express in words", she replied, that sad half-smile still lingering on her lips. "But it's better this way. If I was around constantly, they'd be in danger. I see them every once in a while, though. I went back home for Christmas. They're proud of me, my studies and all. I try to act normal around them and keep them in the loop about the non-slaying related things in my life."

"Do they know?", he asked.

"No", she said. "They have no idea. I'm not going to tell them either. I want them to have normal, long and healthy lives, especially my brother. He deserves something normal, and I can't be a part of that."

Sam found himself once again looking the silver cross around her neck. He had also seen a Bible in the bookshelf and he had to admit he was curious. "So, your cross? Do you, uh, believe?", he asked.

"I do, actually", she said with a smile and started fiddling with the cross around her neck. "I don't think I could carry on if I didn't, with all the nasty things I've seen. I need to believe in something good. Plus there's a bonus to it, vamps get burned by crosses."

"That makes sense", Sam replied. "Dean doesn't really believe in anything, and I sort of feel sorry for him."

She smiled and they stayed quiet for a while, just looking at each other. Every nerve in Sam's body seemed to be humming with excitement for some strange reason. Ever since Jessica died, he hadn't considered other girls that many times. Whatever needs he had had he'd taken care of those in secrecy from Dean with some Casa Erotica and an extra long shower. But he couldn't deny that he too craved a woman's touch. It had been too long, and he wanted that intimacy, to feel close to someone again. And there was something about Rika... He was so comfortable with her, like he'd known her for years. She was smart, witty and extremely beautiful.

He couldn't stop thinking about her, the way she smelled and those seemingly so soft, perfectly shaped lips. Maybe he was ready. All he could think about at the moment was how badly he wanted to kiss her. And that was when he made his decision. He leaned closer, his gaze never moving away from hers, she tensed for a bit but stood perfectly still, and then, just to try the waters, his lips brushed up against hers for merely a few seconds. Her lips were indeed soft. A light puff of air escaped from in between her slightly parted lips and her sweet breath made his knees go weak. Even though their lips didn't touch for long, he could taste her and it was amazing. She tasted of vanilla, wild strawberries and something very pleasant, slightly spicy. The kiss didn't last nearly long enough before they pulled away from each other

"So, uh–". She smiled at him and looked into his eyes but she didn't get to finish, her phone rang, and he heard her sigh as she answered it.

"Hej", she said, then listened to what the other person was saying at the other end. "Nej, jag tror inte att jag kommer hem. Jag håller på med min avhandling, så jag hinner inte."

Sam listened her speak in a language he could only assume was Swedish. It sounded very melodic to him, almost as if she was singing.

"Jo, jag lovar", he heard her continue. "Jag kommer hem i början av juni bara jag är färdig. Hejdå." She hung up.

"Everything okay?", Sam asked.

"Yeah", she replied with a smile, looking slightly guilty. "Mom was just wondering if I'm coming home for Easter and I told her I wasn't. So, where were we?"

Sam smiled and leaned in for another kiss. They started out with a couple of soft tries, but soon the kiss grew more passionate and urgent. They increased the pressure with each kiss, trying, experimenting. Sam's hands travelled to the small of her back, pulling her closer, drawing her in. It felt like no matter what he did she wasn't close enough, and he needed her.

Rika tangled her hands in the hair on the back of his neck, softly scratching and massaging, and the soft moan he let out only to be muffled into her mouth let her know that he liked it. And she too wanted more, so she parted her lips slightly, hoping he'd take the hint that she wanted to deepen their kiss. Sam couldn't deny that he wanted it too, more than anything, so he opened his lips and soon his tongue was in her mouth. He got the strange, but very pleasant, tingly feeling in his stomach again.

Rika felt like she was melting into Sam's arms. This was the best kiss she had ever had. Clearly above average. The things his tongue was doing inside of her mouth... She hadn't felt this way in a long time. She felt like she was about to burst with the electricity between them. She whimpered as he pulled her even closer towards him, it just felt _right_. She needed more. She never wanted him to let go.

Suddenly she felt him picking her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to get even closer. Was it even possible? The friction between their bodies was delicious, and the bulge she could feel at the front of his jeans made her happy. It meant that the want and need was mutual.

Sam stumbled backwards towards the couch, and before she knew it he was sitting on the couch while she straddled him, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. She heard him moan as she tugged at his hair. She moved her hands from around his neck, starting to unbutton his shirt. When she opened the last button, she yanked the shirt off of him and threw it in the corner. His lips were no longer on hers, instead he was kissing his way along her jaw and down her neck to her collarbone, and it made her shiver slightly with pleasure.

She could feel his warm breath tickle her ear as he whispered "_Not here"_. He got back up from the couch with Rika still wrapped around him. Never ceasing to kiss they slowly made their way towards her bedroom and carefully he placed her on her bed. He followed suit, slowly crawling up her body, easing himself over her. He stopped for a moment, just to look at her. Her lips were red and slightly swollen from his kisses, her eyes clouded with lust and she looked breathtaking – almost as if she were glowing. He had made her look like this, and it made him feel slightly proud.

"Don't stop", she whispered. It didn't feel right when he wasn't touching her. She looked up at him, really taking in his body. God, he really had the most perfectly shaped abs she'd ever laid her eyes on. Her hands moved up to tenderly run down his arms. She just wanted to touch him.

"I won't", he whispered back and looked at her with a big smile, hovering just inches above her face.

Finally his lips were on hers again. He stroked her hair, tucking a strand behind her ear and then let his hand continue down her neck causing her to shiver once more. The need and want he was creating within her was driving her insane and it scared her slightly. Still, she arched against him, grinding into him, to encourage his ministration.

Before she knew it his hands were on her waist, under the fabric of her shirt, and he finally pulled it off. She was still wearing too many clothes, _he _was still wearing too many clothes. She kissed his neck, making him groan, as she started unbuckling his belt and undid the fastening on his jeans. He quickly kicked them off his legs, and then he unfastened hers, pulling the jeans off her one leg at a time.

She reveled in the feeling of his rough, large hands roaming their way up her naked thigh, making their way up to her hips where his fingers fluttered along the sensitive skin there. With a tight hold of her hips he placed hot, open mouthed kisses along her stomach, teasing the fabric of her bra with his tongue until the small buds hidden underneath were taunt. All the time her listened to the soft sounds she made, sighs and sweet little moans. He stopped for a moment as his hands snook under her back where he unclasped her bra and three it on the floor. Her underpants closely followed by his boxers quickly followed suit.

All the pieces of clothing, the only things separating Sam from the woman of his dreams, were now removed. She reached out towards the drawer of her nightstand, opened it and in one swift movement she pulled out a condom wrapper. He took it from her and with fingers trembling slightly from excitement he managed to put it on. Sam was completely lost in ecstasy and ultimate bliss. He couldn't control himself anymore. Their lips touched once more and he eased further into her, spreading her thighs and with one, slow thrust he was inside of her. She didn't need long to adjust to him. It was a perfect match, their bodies together. He couldn't imagine being there with anyone else. And for once, he didn't think of Jessica.

He stopped kissing her for a moment, and instead rested his forehead against her while he kept moving with slow, gentle trusts. She looked back into his eyes and smiled. He dipped his head down, moving to kiss her neck again and when he found a particularily sweet spot underneath her ear she gasped and bucked her hips into his. The movement drove him deeper inside of him and Sam cringed, letting his eyes rolled back in exstasy while he tried not screaming out in pleasure.

Rika whimpered and started trying to grasp the the pillows her head was resting on, moving restlessly underneath him. She moved her hands to his neck once more, then slowly down his spine with a ghostly touch, carefully scratching his back with her nails. She made a mental note that he liked it, since he groaned and increased his pace.

Sam could hear her panting, and he realized he was too. He moved his hands under her back and pulled them both up. They were sitting there, his arms holding her close to his body, still inside of her. They moved together in a slow pace, a perfectly synchronized rhythm. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. She was trying to say something, but she couldn't get the words out, only small cracked sounds. They fell back down on the bed and Sam suckled softly on her neck, moving faster and deeper until they were both on the brink. Soon she was left gasping his name, arching back while he felt her tremors tighten around him. He quickly followed.

They were both panting heavily, and he pulled her closer him after pulling out, embracing her. They were laying in silence in her bed, waiting for the beating of their hearts to slow down. Sam pulled the white covers over them and they just looked at each other, closed in a tender embrace, whispering sweet nothings while laying soft touches on each other.

A while later, Sam was laying on his back and she was laying on top of his chest. His hands were resting on her bare back, just above where the covers begun at the curve of her behind. Her hair fell in a cascade around their faces while she softly stroked his. He looked up at her beautiful face and realized he'd never want to look into another woman's eyes the way he was looking into hers right now. At that moment he knew he was caught, he couldn't lose this girl. We wanted to feel like this all the time, completely at ease.

"You okay?", he asked. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine", she replied and gave him that smile he so loved. "And I'm feeling great."

She kissed his forehead and he just held her. She moved, quietly, and he kept her close to his side in his embrace. Soon, they fell asleep in each other's arms, feeling completely at ease.


End file.
